Compare and Contrast: 30 Minutes or Less vs. Collar-Bomb Caper | Underwire on day true story
In 30 Minutes or Less, Jesse Eisenberg, right, plays a pizza deliveryman who robs a bank after two fumbling masterminds strap a bomb to his chest. Aziz Ansari plays Eisenberg's partner in crime.
Image courtesy Sony Pictures
In new film 30 Minutes or Less, Jesse Eisenberg plays Nick, a pizza delivery guy who gets kidnapped, has a bomb locked to his chest, and is forced to rob a bank. The premise, played for laughs in the movie, bears a striking resemblance to a bizarre, real-life crime that ended in the death of a pizza deliveryman named Brian Wells.
In 2003, 46-year-old Brian Wells was killed after a bizarre bomb he was forced to wear around his neck during a bank robbery exploded. (Read Wired's account of the real-life collar bomb story.)
Wells' family recently expressed frustration over 30 Minutes or Less, which opens Friday. "It's hard for me to grasp how other human beings can take delight and pride in making such a movie and consider it a comedy," Wells' sister said in a statement to the Associated Press.
The studio, however, claims that the people behind 30 Minutes or Less, directed by Zombieland's Ruben Fleischer, weren't entirely aware of the case. "The writers were vaguely familiar with what had occurred and wrote an original screenplay that does not mirror the real-life tragedy," said Steve Elzer, a spokesman for Sony Pictures' Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, in a statement.
"Neither the filmmakers nor the stars of 30 Minutes or Less were aware of this crime prior to their involvement in the film," Elzer said.
With that in mind, and without giving away the entire film, here are a few ways in which the movie and the tragic true story are similar — and different.
(Spoiler alert: Major plot points follow.)
- 30 Minutes or Less
- Real-Life Collar-Bomb Story
- Premise
- A pizza delivery guy goes to a far-out location, ends up with a bomb strapped to his person and is forced to rob a bank.
- A pizza delivery guy goes to a far-out location, ends up with a bomb strapped to his person and is forced to rob a bank.
- Setting
- Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Erie, Pennsylvania
- Pizzeria
- Nick works at Vito's Pizza.
- Wells worked at Mama Mia's Pizza-Ria.
- Delivery car
- Nick drives a Mustang 5.0.
- Wells drove a Geo Metro.
- Motive
- Dwayne (Danny McBride) thinks his rich father is spending money on stupid stuff, so he tries to get some quick cash to have his old man killed to speed up his inheritance.
- Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong allegedly needed Wells to rob the bank to get the cash to pay to have her father killed. She believed her father "was blowing through his fortune — money she expected to inherit."
- Partner in crime
- Nick gets help from best friend Chet (played by Aziz Ansari).
- Wells robbed a bank solo.
- Wild women
- A stripper agrees to help Dwayne hook up with his father's would-be assassin, Chango, played by Michael Peña.
- Wells became involved with the collar-bomb plot because he had a relationship with a prostitute. He bought crack, which he gave to the prostitute in exchange for sex.
- Timing
- Nick is just about to finish his shift when he gets sent on one last delivery. (You can play a Paperboy-esque pizza-delivery game on the movie's website.)
- Wells was at the end of his shift but agreed to one last order, which he left with around 2 p.m.
- Post-caper situation
- After the bank robbery, Nick and Chet escape arrest with the bomb intact.
- Wells died shortly after his bank robbery while surrounded by authorities.
- Bottom line
- Is funny. (Sorta.)
- Is not funny. (At all.)
30 Minutes or Less, rated R, hits theaters Friday.
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